Course Planning Committee
Past goals, Achievements, To-do, and Suggestions
Communications Course
Several students in physics requested that a writing course be offered in the department. When
a list of topics to be covered in the course was drafted, it was deemed that a better title might be
“Communication in the Sciences”. The list of topics was sent to Dean George Justice (also the chair of
the English department) as well as our department heads, Dr. Peter Pfeifer (Chair) and Carsten Ullrich
(Director of Graduate Studies).
When “Writing Saturdays” was created by the graduate school, Dr. Pfeifer recommended that
we try it out to see if it meets our needs. Few students have attended the workshops. There is still
potential to convince the department to offer a communications course internally. The list of topics
should be further refined.
Communications
Course Topics.pdf
Communications
Course Topics.doc
Research Tracks
The course planning committee thought it would be useful to create a list of courses for
various disciplines in physics so that incoming students unsure of their path could see example
course outlines. Several tracks have been created with the assistance of professors in their
respective fields. So far, we have: Astrophysics, Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics,
Experimental Condensed Matter Physics, and Bio-Optical Imaging. At the time of writing, an
explanation of these tracks and their courses was available here. These should be extended
and the value of each course explained.
Research Tracks.pdf
Research
Tracks.docx
Course Offerings
The course planning committee bridges the gap between students and faculty about
which graduate courses should be offered in the future. Considerable effort is necessary by the
students to demonstrate a desire for special topics to be offered. To be blunt, student requests
are ignored unless a sufficient number express interest and frequent requests are made to the
faculty’s curriculum committee.
Surveys should be sent to the physics graduate student body at least 10 MONTHS in
advance of the semester to which the questions pertain. An example of a past survey can be
seen here. The department is required to submit course offerings very early and it is easiest to
request special topics courses before the initial course selection is submitted to the registrar.
Note that it IS possible to add special topics courses as late as 2 months before the semester
begins, as long as the course has been offered in the past and already has a course number
associated with it. The faculty will not appreciate the last minute shuffle though, and they can
very well shut down your request. So, it’s always safest to PLAN AHEAD!
Finally, make requests for courses to as many of the curriculum committee’s faculty
members as possible. Explain the desire for each course to each of them and back this up with
numbers of students who are willing to commit to enrollment in those courses. Be very
persistent! With that said, students are notorious for begging for a course offering, but never
signing up for it. Make sure the students who ask for a course to be offered are committed to
enrolling in that course for the semester chosen. Get a list of names so that the course
planning committee isn’t held responsible in the event of a course being offered with no
enrollment.